Why Doesn't TNA Hire the Best Indy Talent?

[MWRedskins]

So giving some points to further the discussion:[/B]

• Would it be wise for TNA to invest on some really "big" indy stars?
• Who would you want to see having a TNA opportunitty?
• Should the age of top TNA wrestlers be a concern for the management?
• Should TNA work more like an ECW style, when it comes to please the hardcore fans?

ok, let's answer
1) yes because ROH has had some great success with bringing out some talent.
2) Adam Cole would be a good one, if he wants to go so would Colt Cabana.
3) only if these guys are injury prone and arent worth signing.
4) now the biggrest reason i came to this post, NO they should not be like an ECW. ECW was great for hardcore wrestling fans, but it was insanely dangerous, didnt have great production and when some guys left, didnt have the best wrestlers. TNA just needs to fix their financial issues first, then when that's fixed, they need to then get a midcard title, add some more knockouts and x-division talent. sadly, i dont think they do the first thing i want them to do, so if they dont do that then the X-Division rules NEED to change back to no limits and end the weight limit and triple threat rules.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

The issue isn't "why don't they sign the top indy talent", it's will the top indy talent sign for them?

Kevin Steen said it best in an interview just before WrestleMania weekend - nobody grew up watching TNA. Nobody or at least very few people have been influenced to become wrestlers by TNA. The money isn't in TNA, the security isn't in TNA and if you sign and they don't use you (ala The Young Bucks/Generation Me) then you're sitting on your couch earning very little money when you could take indy bookings on weekends and make much more money.

The only top indy stars I have ever heard say they would take TNA over WWE is The Young Bucks and that is solely because they don't think there is a place for them in WWE and that they would adjust to the WWE schedule. Nigel McGuinness never chose TNA over WWE, he went to TNA because he'd closed out his ROH career in perfect fashion and wanted something new, in the end things happened and they fired him despite telling him "you have our full support" (seems familiar, huh?).

Adam Cole rejected a WWE deal to stay in ROH for another two years. Davey Richards has previously rejected a WWE deal to continue wrestling on the indies - although it seems he may soon be there. If you are an indy wrestler and you can choose guaranteed good money and the opportunity to wrestle in-front of 80,000 people and become financially secure within the space of a few years, or wrestle on national TV for not much more money then you're already making, what do you do?

Answer is pretty simple. Every top indy guy who has signed for TNA had a reason behind it sans The Young Bucks. WWE rejected Austin Aries, they never contacted Samoa Joe when they got in-touch with Punk, they took back Nigel's offer and the rest such as Doug Williams and Christopher Daniels didn't meet their criteria.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

The issue isn't "why don't they sign the top indy talent", it's will the top indy talent sign for them?

Kevin Steen said it best in an interview just before WrestleMania weekend - nobody grew up watching TNA. Nobody or at least very few people have been influenced to become wrestlers by TNA. The money isn't in TNA, the security isn't in TNA and if you sign and they don't use you (ala The Young Bucks/Generation Me) then you're sitting on your couch earning very little money when you could take indy bookings on weekends and make much more money.

The only top indy stars I have ever heard say they would take TNA over WWE is The Young Bucks and that is solely because they don't think there is a place for them in WWE and that they would adjust to the WWE schedule. Nigel McGuinness never chose TNA over WWE, he went to TNA because he'd closed out his ROH career in perfect fashion and wanted something new, in the end things happened and they fired him despite telling him "you have our full support" (seems familiar, huh?).

Adam Cole rejected a WWE deal to stay in ROH for another two years. Davey Richards has previously rejected a WWE deal to continue wrestling on the indies - although it seems he may soon be there. If you are an indy wrestler and you can choose guaranteed good money and the opportunity to wrestle in-front of 80,000 people and become financially secure within the space of a few years, or wrestle on national TV for not much more money then you're already making, what do you do?

Answer is pretty simple. Every top indy guy who has signed for TNA had a reason behind it sans The Young Bucks. WWE rejected Austin Aries, they never contacted Samoa Joe when they got in-touch with Punk, they took back Nigel's offer and the rest such as Doug Williams and Christopher Daniels didn't meet their criteria.

I think what you're saying has a great deal of validity, BUT, in the case of Cole and Richards, they chose not to go to WWE because they were concerned about being sent to FCW (at the time), and the damage that could be done by not having their 'own names' out for the world to see with no guarantee that they'll end up on the main roster. Personally, I think it was a decision made with a double edged sword. I think they let ego get in the way of a life changing career move, but I have to respect their decisions on the grounds that it shows a level of integrity that isn't often seen.

 

[justinsayne]

Can ROH even still be called an indy promotion? They're owned by parent company in Sinclair, have a weekly television deal, & to the best of my knowledge all their talent are signed to contracts, which prevent them from jumping to a TNA or WWE at anytime, which is why guys like Steen, Cole, & Elgin are not jumping over to TNA. I beleive Colt has expressed on more than one occasion that he has little to no interest in going back to WWE or signing with TNA, he even seems to have very little desire to sign with ROH at this point as he feels the company is too corporate, & right now he's seems to have done a nice job of carving out his own niche in the indy scene where he's able to make enough to live off of while doing pretty much whatever he wants wherever he wants.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

Can ROH even still be called an indy promotion? They're owned by parent company in Sinclair, have a weekly television deal, & to the best of my knowledge all their talent are signed to contracts, which prevent them from jumping to a TNA or WWE at anytime, which is why guys like Steen, Cole, & Elgin are not jumping over to TNA. I beleive Colt has expressed on more than one occasion that he has little to no interest in going back to WWE or signing with TNA, he even seems to have very little desire to sign with ROH at this point as he feels the company is too corporate, & right now he's seems to have done a nice job of carving out his own niche in the indy scene where he's able to make enough to live off of while doing pretty much whatever he wants wherever he wants.

That's a valid point, but a few indys do have TV. This is why I think their best move is to work with rather than against TNA. ROH will not grow on its own. In fact, they have removed themselves from the live PPV business because of their own short comings, and remember, they are owned by a Broadcasting Company. That, to me, shows a lack of drive.

 

[lazeric]

Let's be honest here the reason TNA doesn't invest in these types of guys is simple: Hogan and Bischoff. We are truly watching WCW 2.0. Their method is to bring in guys who already have "face value" and hope for the best. TNA used to sign Indy guys as evident with Styles, Joe, Aries, and Wolfe hell they even had Punk at one time but the company had to bring in the WCW destroyers to run into the ground a company that was starting to take off. Now they are purging talent instead of bringing it in. Could u imagine a Cole vs Aries match or a hard hitting Steen vs Joe match. U can't tell me that Kevin Steen could not have done a better job in the role that Bully Ray is playing now but sadly we will never know because Hogan and Bitchoff won't allow it

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I think what you're saying has a great deal of validity, BUT, in the case of Cole and Richards, they chose not to go to WWE because they were concerned about being sent to FCW (at the time), and the damage that could be done by not having their 'own names' out for the world to see with no guarantee that they'll end up on the main roster. Personally, I think it was a decision made with a double edged sword. I think they let ego get in the way of a life changing career move, but I have to respect their decisions on the grounds that it shows a level of integrity that isn't often seen.

That isn't why Adam Cole didn't go to WWE at all. I just watched his Kevin Steen Show shoot and he says he wants to achieve what Punk, Bryan, Claudio and Hero did before signing for WWE - the ROH guy status. He even feels Hero and Claudio left with a lot more to achieve, which hes right about because neither reached the top of singles wrestling on the indies.

Davey chose not to sign for WWE so he could wrestle in Japan, specifically and become ROH World Champion as secondary. Then when NJPW screwed him and caused him to fail paramedic school he chose to stick with ROH, until they didn't have his back when he needed them and now he is admittedly riding out his contract. After All Star Extravaganza V if American Wolves don't become ROH Tag Team Champions, Davey at least is gone. Eddie may follow.

That's a valid point, but a few indys do have TV. This is why I think their best move is to work with rather than against TNA. ROH will not grow on its own. In fact, they have removed themselves from the live PPV business because of their own short comings, and remember, they are owned by a Broadcasting Company. That, to me, shows a lack of drive.

Defintion of being an independent wrestling company is that you are independently funded. ROH hasn't been an indy promotion since the purchase by Sinclair. And some indy promotions such as CWFHollywood or Beyond Wrestling have local TV deals or deals across their state - ROH can be viewed in 21% of homes across the Northeast of America on national syndication.

And there is no reason for them to work with TNA anymore. They did it in the past, it did very little.

 

[lazeric]

Let's be honest here the reason TNA doesn't invest in these types of guys is simple: Hogan and Bischoff. We are truly watching WCW 2.0. Their method is to bring in guys who already have "face value" and hope for the best. TNA used to sign Indy guys as evident with Styles, Joe, Aries, and Wolfe hell they even had Punk at one time but the company had to bring in the WCW destroyers to run into the ground a company that was starting to take off. Now they are purging talent instead of bringing it in. Could u imagine a Cole vs Aries match or a hard hitting Steen vs Joe match. U can't tell me that Kevin Steen could not have done a better job in the role that Bully Ray is playing now but sadly we will never know because Hogan and Bitchoff won't allow it

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Let's be honest here the reason TNA doesn't invest in these types of guys is simple: Hogan and Bischoff. We are truly watching WCW 2.0. Their method is to bring in guys who already have "face value" and hope for the best. TNA used to sign Indy guys as evident with Styles, Joe, Aries, and Wolfe hell they even had Punk at one time but the company had to bring in the WCW destroyers to run into the ground a company that was starting to take off. Now they are purging talent instead of bringing it in. Could u imagine a Cole vs Aries match or a hard hitting Steen vs Joe match. U can't tell me that Kevin Steen could not have done a better job in the role that Bully Ray is playing now but sadly we will never know because Hogan and Bitchoff won't allow it

In the "Hogan / Bischoff era"; Austin Aries, Kenny King, TJ Perkins, Sonjay Dutt and Chris Daniels have all come in from RoH AND received pushes... Boy, Hulk and Eric are bastards!

Please tell me how Kevin Steen would have been better than Bully Ray who has received critical praise across the board for his work ever since the 3D split nearly 3 years ago.

A quick question on the TNA / RoH discussion - does anybody know the story with Sonjay Dutt? In the next 10 days he is advertised to compete for the XDivision Title tonight AND the RoH World Title Tournament on the 27th July.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

He said on AOW with Cabana months back he doesn't want to be contracted by anyone, he enjoys the freedom of being able to work for whomever.